Sailor's Deck: COLREGS

Vladimir Arefev

In-app purchases

About this app

Navigation lights and day shapes is the hardest topic on every skipper exam. Minimum 50 configurations to recognise, from any bearing, under time pressure. Most sailors try to cram it from a textbook the night before. It doesn't work.

Sailor's Deck is built specifically for this. Flashcards with spaced repetition — the study method proven to build lasting visual memory — sequenced across four layers from basic light identification through to full composite scenarios. The app tracks what you know, resurfaces what you don't, and keeps drilling the configurations you keep getting wrong until they stick.

HOW IT WORKS
Each session presents set of cards drawn from your personal review queue. Answer correctly and the card moves to a longer review interval. Answer wrong and it comes back sooner. Get a category badly wrong and the relevant COLREGS rule is shown on the spot.

The four-layer progression matches the way your exam actually tests you:
— Layer 1: Base lights — masthead, sidelights, sternlight
— Layer 2: Status lights — what the vessel is doing
— Layer 3: Day shapes — cone, ball, cylinder, diamond
— Layer 4: Composite scenarios — full patterns from specific bearings
Confusion pairs are built in. Miss a RAM card and the NUC card is queued immediately behind it. Miss a trawling vessel and the purse-seine card follows. The pairs most likely to lose you marks on the exam are pre-wired into the system.

100+ CARDS. ALMOST EVERY CONFIGURATION.
Power-driven vessels, sailing vessels, vessels not under command, restricted in ability to manoeuvre, constrained by draught, pilot vessels, mine clearance, dredgers, air-cushion vessels, fishing vessels trawling and not trawling, vessels at anchor, towing and pushing — plus all COLREGS day shapes. Every card reviewed by a qualified sailing instructor.

WORKS FOR YOUR ASSOCIATION
Select your certification on first launch and the app uses your association's terminology throughout:
— RYA Day Skipper / Coastal Skipper / Yachtmaster
— IYT Bareboat / Coastal / Master of Yachts
— ISSA Inshore / Offshore
— ASA 104 / 106
One card library. Your language.

NO ACCOUNT. NO INTERNET. NO NONSENSE.
Everything runs offline. Progress is saved locally. No login, no subscription, no ads. Free — permanently, with no card limit and no time limit on the entry skipper deck.

DAILY STREAK + PROGRESS TRACKING
A daily streak keeps you coming back in the weeks before your exam. Per-category accuracy shows exactly where your weak spots are. Session summaries flag the COLREGS rules you need to read.

What’s new

• Tip Jar — if the app helped your studies, you can now leave a small, optional tip to support development. Entirely optional; the app stays completely free.
• Send feedback — a new option in Settings to email suggestions or report an issue directly.
• Smoother study screen — answer options now scroll on smaller screens, so nothing hides under the navigation bar.
• Stability fixes for the latest Android devices.